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Phosphor Games uses Vicon mocap to create Nether demons

Vicon, the motion capture technology specialists for the entertainment, life sciences and engineering industries, has announced that Chicago-based games developer Phosphor Games used a Vicon motion capture system to create realistic character and creature animation for the new first-person shooter online game, Nether.

Published by Nether Productions LLC, Nether is set in an unforgiving, post-apocalyptic urban environment - based loosely on Chicago - with danger waiting around every corner. Players are forced to make quick, life-saving decisions, and use skill and craft to obtain resources to survive in the sprawling, desolate city. They must choose whether to team up with others or go solo against the powerful, teleporting demon-like creatures known as the Nethers, other players, and unpredictable, treacherous world objectives.

Phosphor Games used Vicon Bonita optical motion capture cameras and Blade real-time motion capture software to create the human characters and the Nethers. According to Phosphor Games' director of animation Alan Cruz, the mocap process allowed them to experiment with and evolve the animation, humanizing or demonizing it, and adding their own creative style – producing a unique end result.

"The Vicon system allows us to keep working at our craft," explained Cruz. "The process is very quick. What used to take weeks now takes just two or three hours. It allows us to spend more time acting things out, as well as iterating and finessing the animation. We can get an animation into the game in less than ten minutes, which is huge. Clean up times are minimal, and data editing times are a fraction of what they used to be. We used to have a team of guys editing the data – now we just need one."

"The Vicon system gives Phosphor Games a very fast, precise motion capture solution, resulting in highly realistic character animation in Nether," said Jeffrey Ovadya, sales director, Vicon. "The time and cost savings the Vicon system delivers has enabled the team to spend more time on the creative aspects and focus on creating a unique, immersive game."